Public health is every nurse's business
RCN members heard from Viv Bennett, Director of Nursing at the Department of Health and Director of Nursing at Public Health England at this session focussing on public health.
She said we need to talk up the impact that nurses have on public health outcomes, and was given a consensus from delegates who agreed that nurses do have a duty to contribute to good outcomes in the public's health.
Viv highlighted three main priorities:
- Ensuring nurses are trained and supported to broach difficult discussions with patients about public health issues (ie weight management, smoking, etc) - particularly for NQNs who may not feel very confident in doing this
- Equipping nurses with up to date knowledge on public health (e.g. alcohol consumption guidance) - later this year, easily accessible guidance will be published on NICE public health guidance, making it more accessible to nursing staff.
- Co-ordinating activity - she said Public Health England has a big role to play in running well-coordinated national campaigns, and allowing nurses enough lead in time to run local campaigns
Questions were raised around the need to give nurses time (eg when a patient is admitted to A&E for an alcohol-related incident/ accident) to raise public health issues with patients and to give them appropriate information/ signpost to relevant services.
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